Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Authorities searched for the last of three prisoners who escaped from jail on Saturday louisiana Gel after removing concrete blocks from a deteriorating wall.
St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby J. “We would like him to surrender peacefully,” Guidroz said in a statement, “but we will not rest until he is captured.”
Sheriff’s spokesman Major Mark LeBlanc said detectives and SWAT officers were searching Saturday for Keith Ely, 24, who remained at large three days after escaping with two other inmates from the Parish jail in southwestern Louisiana. Eli was jailed for second-degree murder.
One of the escapees, 24-year-old Johnathan Jevon Joseph, was captured Friday after a brief chase. LeBlanc said investigators responded to a tip and found Joseph, who was in prison on rape and other crimes, hiding in a house. Joseph fled to a nearby storage shed, where he surrendered after being cornered, LeBlanc said.
The third escapee, Joseph Allen Harrington, 26, killed himself with a hunting rifle Thursday after police found him in a house and used a loudspeaker to call him out, Port Barre Police Chief Deon Boudreaux said. Before fleeing, Harrington faced several serious charges, including home invasion.
This was not the first daring prison escape in Louisiana this year. 10 prisoners escaped from jail in May new Orleans Jail after crawling into a hole behind a toilet and leaving a message that read, “Too Easy LOL.” Authorities searched for the escapees in several states as local officials pointed fingers at who was to blame for the prison escapes. It took five months to recapture all 10 prisoners.
As sheriff, Guidroz oversees the St. Landry Parish Jail in Opelousas, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans. He has said that the prisoners escaped after discovering “the derelict part of the upper wall area” and over time managed to remove the mortar holding the concrete blocks of the wall together. This helped him remove enough blocks to slide off the wall.
The inmates then used sheets to climb the prison’s exterior wall, drop onto the first-floor roof and throw themselves to the ground, Guidroz said in a news release Wednesday.
The sheriff said there will be an internal investigation into the breakout.